In 1987, the
newly elected Mayor of Metro Nashville challenged some of his department heads
to develop a program to address the issue of improperly maintained vacant lots.
The issue had become a high-priority one for the City for a number of
reasons.

At the time, large numbers of vacant and
dilapidated properties were clustered heavily in the inner city, where many of
the residents were low-income and unemployment was high. Community residents and
local officials were starting to work together on redevelopment strategies for
many of these neighborhoods, and the State of Tennessee had recently proposed a
major new development -- the Bicentennial Mall, which would include State
government offices and a new State park -- in the immediate downtown
area.

Many of these properties were completely
derelict -- overgrown with weeds, filled with trash, and a haven for rats,
snakes and stray animals. In addition to being a blight on these neighborhoods
and posing potential health hazards for area residents, the properties were also
the scenes of drug deals, drug-shooting "galleries" and prostitution, and were a
magnet for graffiti, illegal dumping and other acts of vandalism. The number and
condition of these properties made many of these neighborhoods look and feel
"unsafe." Many of the residents who lived next door to these properties were
elderly, and most of them had bars on their windows and doors and ventured
outside only during daylight hours and only to buy essentials or to make trips
to the doctor.

Scope of the
Problem

Metro
Nashville's is a metropolitan form of government and its jurisdiction includes
both the City and Davidson County, a 525-square-mile area with a total
population of 535,000. Prior to 1987, City officials knew that there were a
large number of neglected and abandoned properties in Metro Nashville, but there
was no integrated system in place for tracking the number and condition of
vacant lots over a large area, or for locating absentee owners.

Another problem was that existing City
ordinances created no incentive for private owners to keep their properties
clean. Based on complaints received (90% of which came from neighborhood
residents, and still do) and follow-up field inspections, vacant lots would be
cleaned by work crews supervised by the Metro Sheriff's Office. Post-cleanup,
Metro Health Department inspectors would place the maximum, $50 lien on these
properties, regardless of the scope of the cleanup, the size of the crew needed,
or the amount of time that was spent. It was an unbeatable deal for the property
owners.

Creating a Vacant Lot
Program

In
1987, the three municipal departments that were given primary responsibility for
developing and implementing a vacant lot program for the City of Nashville and
Davidson County were Metro Health, Metro Parks and Recreation, and Metro Public
Works. One of their first priorities was to develop a state-of-the-art computer
tracking system that would be a central repository for all relevant information
from all departments involved, including the council district, map and parcel
numbers; property address; name and address of property owner, and citations
issued.

Development of Metro Nashville's computerized Vacant Lot
Tracking System took one year. The system included all of the information listed
above, as well as updated land-use information from the Property Assessor's
Office, referral tracking between Metro Parks, Health and Public Works, and
Trustee's Office data on liens filed and paid. Starting in 1988, responsibility
for vacant lot program tracking was given to the Metro Beautification &
Environment Commission, a division of Metro Parks and Recreation. The Metro
Beautification & Environment Commission is an affiliate of Keep America
Beautiful, Inc.

In order to
establish accountability and consolidate management responsibility for the new
program, the Metro Council introduced and approved legislation, which was
enacted in October of 1988, to give Metro Parks the responsibility for managing
the entire Vacant Lot Program. To strengthen the new program even further and
streamline the enforcement process, separate Council legislation, enacted in
1989, moved the City's Vegetation Control Board, which was responsible for
hearing owner appeals for cited vacant lots, to the Metro Parks
Department.

In order to bill private owners for the actual
cost of cleaning their property - instead of the $50 maximum fines allowable
under existing ordinances - Metro Parks sought enabling legislation from the
State General Assembly, which was granted and then approved by Metro Council in
1988. Additional State legislation enacted in 1989 allowed these liens to be
billed with property taxes, creating an additional incentive for owners to keep
their properties clean and pay liens promptly, or risk losing their properties
in foreclosure proceedings. (Prior to this, the only compelling reason for
property owners to pay outstanding liens would be if they required clear title
to a deed.)

Up and
Running

With its
computer-tracking system, program structure, and local and state legislation in
place, Metro Nashville's "Vacant Lot Program" was unveiled in 1989. Program
staff included: one program coordinator and clerical staff from Metro Parks; one
field supervisor and two, four-member laborer crews from Metro Public Works, and
one supervisor, seven environmentalists and one clerk from Metro Health. The
program had a first-year appropriation of $125,000 for cleaning the vacant lots,
and the work would be performed by or contracted through Metro Public Works.
(Since 1994, the Vacant Lot Program has been funded at $360,000 per year.)

Under Metro
Nashville's Vacant Lot Program, Metro Health inspectors survey properties that
are the subject of complaints and refer violations to the Metro Beautification
& Environment Commission, which issues certified compliance letters to the
last-known property owner of record. The letters place owners on notice that
they have 10 days to clean their property or to request an appeal before the
Vegetation Control Board.

Re-inspections are conducted by Health Environmentalists,
who are in the field from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., spending some 55% of their time on
the Vacant Lot Program during the "growing season" (the summer months) and 35%
during the "off-growing" season. In addition, a staff member from Metro
Beautification & Environment spends three days a week touring the
communities and reporting potential violations. Any vacant lots that are not
"cut and clean" are flagged on the tracking system. Private owners who either
fail to abate the conditions or who do not file for appeals have their
properties referred to Metro Public Works, which has the legal authority to
enter private property. Following the City's cleanup, liens are placed on the
property equal to the cost of the cleanup and are billed with property
taxes.

From the
beginning, monthly computerized reports were distributed by Metro Beautification
& Environment staff to the Mayor, the 40 Metro Council members, department
heads involved in the program, Parks and Vegetation Control Board members, Metro
Beautification & Environment Commissioners, and to Tennessee Department of
Transportation officials. (Through a litter grant, TDOT provides funds to assist
with Program computer costs.) The monthly reports list vacant lots that have
been reported by anyone -- citizens, community groups, local elected officials,
neighborhood audits, or Health environmentalists in the field. Citizens
reporting vacant lots do not have to give their names, which accounts for the
large number of citizen referrals.

From the
beginning, the goals of the Vacant Lot Program have been to eliminate conditions
in vacant lots that are a source of litter and neighborhood blight, to have 100%
of the vacant lots cleaned by the owners, and to achieve year-round compliance
with City ordinances requiring that vacant lots be properly maintained. Since
1989, Metro Nashville's Vacant Lot Program has achieved the following
results:

· From 1989 through July of 1999, the Program has tracked
28,778 vacant lot reports, averaging approximately 3,000 lots tracked per
year.

· The Program is tracking an estimated 85% of all vacant
lots in the Metro area. (Some vacant lot properties in outlying areas are zoned
"agricultural," and are not held to the same standards.)

· By the end of 1989, the Program was tracking 1,680 lots.
The number of lots tracked peaked in 1994 (3,367) and is currently 1,329 (as of
July 1999).

· Of all lots reported, over 90% have been cleaned by
private owners or have been cleaned by the City and had liens placed on
them.

· From 1989-1999, the average lien placed was
$500.

· Since 1989, 68% of liens have been paid. (State
legislation allows for collection of liens that are outstanding for more than
one year through the Environmental Court.)

· From 1989 through July of 1999, the City has placed a
total of $1,191,107 in liens on vacant lots, and has collected $693,137 in lien
payments.

The
Program continues to have a significant, visible impact on the community. A case
in point is Council District 20, an inner-city neighborhood where the
Bicentennial Mall is now located. During 1994, with the enthusiastic support of
the 20th District Councilwoman, 600 vacant lots were tracked and all
were cleaned by the private property owners or by Metro Public Works. As a
result of the Bicentennial Mall's development, many of the formerly abandoned
lots have now been incorporated into the beautiful, new State park, or are now
the site of the Farmer's Market, new commercial properties or fast food
restaurants. In addition, with the help of Metro Housing and Development federal
funding, a new neighborhood -- Hope Gardens -- has been created in this council
district, with newly constructed affordable housing and a neighborhood park, on
the former sites of some of the most derelict abandoned
properties.

The
Nashville Housing Foundation reports that a total of 120 properties to date -
most of which were vacant lots - have been transformed into affordable housing
for families and, at a market value of $70,000 each, been returned to the
property-tax-paying rolls.

In
addition to the $693,137 in lien payments already collected by the City from
private owners -- and the new homes and businesses that have replaced
once-decrepit vacant properties -- Metro Nashville's Vacant Lot Program
translates into $1 million a year in "cost avoidance" for the City, the result
of private owners who now clean up their own properties instead of municipal
labor crews having to do the work. Using Keep America Beautiful's Photometric
Index measuring tool, the Metro Beautification & Environment Commission
recently reported a 90% decrease in litter in vacant lots in 1999, compared to
their baseline measurement in 1989.